Security screeners at Trudeau International Airport have given their union a strike mandate after unanimously rejecting the latest contract offer from Securitas.
The United Steelworkers Union said the Montreal airport's 600 employees are prepared to strike if talks fail to reach a deal to address wages that are lower than for those working at airports in Toronto and Quebec City.
Union representative Michel Courcy said negotations have focused largely on the salary paid to screeners, which ranges from $15 to $21 an hour.
Screeners want to be paid the same as their counterparts in Toronto, who recently signed a contract that included raises.
Spokesperson Marc Hennessey said screeners are also fighting to keep an area used for meal breaks, so screeners don't have to use public areas while they eat.
"Securitas is saying they're going to take those break rooms away. They're going to take the table, chairs away so we're not going to have any place to eat, not going to have any place to sit down, going to have to eat standing up. That's if we get our breaks, because right now breaks are a big issue as well," said Hennessey.
The Labour Relations Board will have to make an essential service ruling to determine how much time workers will have to spend on the job in the event they do go on strike.
Negotiations between the two sides are scheduled to resume on Monday.
With files from The Canadian Press
